Continuing the Journey: Past Redwood Counselor Returns to Redwood

This semester, past Redwood counselor Angelica Jauregui, returns to Redwood and shares her experience from accepting a district position to returning to Redwood as a freshman counselor.

By: Hope Murapa

As we grow older there are many decisions we must make, such as job choice, deciding between something fresh and new, or sticking with what we already know. Angelica Jauregui was faced with this challenging choice and she chose something fresh and new, but now a year later she has decided to come back, Why?

Angelica Jauregui photo h.murapa/Gigantea

Angelica Jauregui had been at Redwood High School for a lengthy 12 years before she accepted a district position, she stayed at her district job for about a year but recently she has decided to return to Redwood and become a counselor once again.

Moving from being a school counselor to a district worker is admittedly a big change for anyone. Jauregui stayed at her district job for about a year helping in various schools to improve counseling services throughout the district. Jauregui has nothing bad to say about her district job, but when it came down to it, while Jauregui enjoyed her job at the district she says that Redwood is her home away from home and she is “happy to be home again.”

In rejoining Redwoods staff as a counselor, Jauregui says, “It is a little bit of an adjustment because I feel like I’m a little rusty in some areas.” She also says she is having slight difficulties regarding the minimal changes that have occurred in the year she has been gone, otherwise, she is comfortably starting to get “back into the swing of things.”

One major thing that differs from when Jauregui used to work at Redwood is that counselors no longer have to focus on several grades. Instead, they have one class that they follow up until graduation. Jauregui says, “ I love the idea of having just one grade level and really being able to focus on them.” Jauregui says in the past, from 2013 through 2017, there was a similar system put into place, and she enjoyed it because, “they all knew who you were and you had relationships with, if not all, most of the kids.” Furthermore, she feels this change will make it easier for her to focus on the needs specific to the grade level she is working with. Additionally, Jauregui says it makes it easier to connect with the teachers working with the grade she is counseling because they’re not scattered across seniors, juniors, and so forth.

A lot can change in a year, but as far as her friendships with the other staff, Jauregui says, “It’s like you pick up where you left off, you know, it’s kind of like you never left.”